Law School Admissions Researching Law Schools Part II

It’s a funny thing – law schools are pretty much all the same, but they think of themselves so differently. All 1L students (pretty much) take the same courses: contracts, torts, civil procedure, constitutional law, property, and criminal law. Almost all law school students graduate with debt. All law schools produce a similar variety of lawyers – lawyers at firms, in-house counsels, prosecutors, defense attorneys, and a smattering of other positions. But law schools, importantly, see themselves quite differently. If you go to Stanford Law’s homepage, it is all about intellectual property, technology law, and copyright. If you go to Yale’s, it is more about appellate litigation, clerkships, the judiciary, and academia. Georgetown has a humanities track for 1Ls. Berkeley and NYU have a history of activist lawyering and work in criminal justice. UVA was very involved with school desegregation. UCLA and USC emphasize their well-established ties with the entertainment industry. So, while there are pronounced differences, they are ultimately more similar than different. That said, when writing your essays for each school, you need to emphasize that you understand these differences. Law schools like to think they are all very different, and the more you can tap into that self-conception, the better. Furthermore, they like to see that you’ve done your homework. All things equal, whom do they want? The applicant who really seems to want to go, as evidenced by their tremendous research into the school’s offerings, or the applicant who didn’t care as much? This research process is even more important once you have offers in hand. Then you really want to know what each school has to offer. Doing this work on the front end can help make fielding offers much easier on the backend. When researching law schools, here are some things you want to consider. I suggest keeping a careful spreadsheet with all of this information – it can be easy to forget when you don’t keep track, and you don’t have to have to repeat work. Some things to think about on round two include: The homepage Like I mentioned above, how does this school present itself? What they emphasize online can be a good indication of the school’s vibe and priorities. Student faculty ratio The smaller the better Faculty What faculty really seem to be doing work that matters to you? Any research projects that you might want to assist on? Course offerings What looks unique and how do these offering match your interests? Some more niche legal areas include Art law Technology and the law Healthcare law Intellectual property Maritime law Private international law Regulatory law Student journals and law reviews Any that particularly appeal to you? Available clinics Extra-curricular activities Moot court and mock trial opportunities Employment opportunities How well does this school do with the jobs you are most interested in, including, Big law Clerkships Academic job placement Federal or local government placement Alumni Who inspires you? Who has followed a career trajectory you would be excited to pursue? Special tracks or programs For example, UCLA has a special public service track, and Georgetown has a night-law and part-time option. On-campus experience/facilities Do most students live on campus? Local shared houses? Traditions/culture Scavenger hunts? Campus runs? Finals traditions? Regional versus national reputation Some law schools are more regional, training all sorts of lawyers for one geographic area. Some are more national, producing lawyers that spread out all over the country. The general rule is that the T20ish schools are more national; lower ranked schools tend to be more local. This isn’t always the case though (especially for schools in California) so it is an important research area depending on your goals. What kind of aid do they offer? Harvard, Yale, and Stanford only offer need based financial aid. Other law schools have a host of merit scholarships, some that can even reach the full ride level. Careful research about what kind of scholarship opportunities, and when you have to apply for them. Reputation from your network Talk to people who graduated from the school! This can often be the best source of information. But remember to take everything with a grain of salt, especially extreme opinions. At this stage, there’s no such thing as too much research. When you are thinking about your essay, pick 2-3 of the things that stuck out the most to you when researching, and talk about why the matter to you, excite you, and attract you that school. When weighing your eventual options, look more collectively at all the data you’ve gathered to determine the best fit. Read part 1 of Jimmy's series here. Whether you’re just beginning on this race, or whether you just need a final push to get you over the finish line, your tutor will design a customized road map that will take you through every aspect of the application process, covering LSAT preparation, recommendations, the personal statement, addenda, and anything else that you need. Applicants who follow our structured approach find that they are less stressed out and more successful. ; Applying to law school in 2019-20? Check out some other helpful blog posts from Jimmy below! Law School Admissions: Drafting the personal statement Law School Admissions: Deciding whether to retake the LSAT Law School Admissions: Deciding on the diversity statement

Analysis of Meyers Book Entitled Literature to Go - 1100 Words

Critical Analysis of Meyer's Book Entitled 'Literature to go' (Essay Sample) Content: Name:Instructor:Course:Date:Critical Analysis of The American Beauty  MovieThe "American Beauty" movie is one of the outstanding films written and directed by Alan Ball and Sam Mendes respectively way back in the 2000. The movie is all about a main character known as Lester Burnham. This is a mere character that seems to be in a constant search for happiness. He is an ordinary man who falls at the age group of forties. Lester Burnham is trapped in a loveless matrimony due to the fact that Carolyn Burnham, his wife, is marred with the ultimate thoughts that the most essential thing in life is success. She thus neglects him because of her absolute obsession towards her career. Here, Lester mentions often that Carolyn does not acknowledge him at all. On the other hand, his daughter known as Jane Burnham tends to elicit an emotional distance from him, and is fond of claiming that Lester was pathetic and wretched in nature. At the start of the movie, Lester was initiall y informed on the higher probability of losing his occupation. All these negative factors culminate dramatically into the ultimate feelings of vulnerability and desperation for him. Transformation and changes begins to be witnessed at the time when he was introduced to Angela Hayes, the daughter's friend. Lester overheard a chat between Angela and Jane, whereby Angela asserts that she can have sexual intimacy with him only if he begins building up and working-out his body. The ultimate thought of the teenage girl terming Lester as being "hot", excites him to a greater extent thus bringing out Lester's significant transformation throughout the film (Streisand Barbra, 76).The first analysis is on the scene whereby Lester initially spots Angela. It is a moment when Carolyn and Lester had decided offer greater support to Jane at school whereby she was involved in a dancing performance. The scene is more significant since it depicts how Lester starts rebelling against his usual nature, primarily due to Angela's sexuality. This scene kick starts at the moment when Carolyn and Lester arrive at the pitch right before their daughters performance. As the entire performance begun, Angela is almost immediately accorded an upward position within the camera framework. By giving her an essentially upward position in the frame, there is thus a suggestion that she is eventually noticed by Lester. Angela thus gets Lesters attention as the entire scene continues.The second analyzed scene is the one occurring towards the endpoint of the movie when Lester's dreams and fantasies are almost becoming a reality. The scene is essential due to the fact that it depicts the second turning point of events that essentially transforms Lester once again. The only variation is that this time round he transforms back to his original nature marred with the ultimate realization of the meaning of happiness.The onset of the scene is characterized with the perspective whereby Lester moves closer to wards Angela Hayes who is eventually lying down on a couch. Here, the camera pans towards the right position then down while following Lesters actions. It actually builds up suspense towards what might occur next. The downward movement tends to imply a rather negative action. The negative act in this case is that of Lester's sexual propensity towards a teenager. The downward movement also implies that something was lost; in this ultimate case being the loss of Angelas virginity.The next significant shot is that of Angelas appearance at an angle of 45 degrees within the frame. It is regarded as the Dutch-angle shot whereby a camera is essentially is tilted from the normal vertical and horizontal position. The Dutch-angle emphasizes on the unusual nature of the frames actions (Malone Peter et.al, 87). For this case, it exemplifies Angelas unnatural reaction due to the perspective of almost having a first sexual experience. As the entire scene progresses, the camera significantly pans from right to left and left to right because of Lester's hands going up and down the Angela's body. It actually intensifies greater erotic feeling within the scene.In the other shot, the camera is moved towards a vibrant crane shot that shows Lester's hands unfastening Angela's shirt. A crane shot refers to a shot obtained from an ultimate camera that is mounted onto the elevating arm. This shot is thus followed by what is regarded as a shot-reverse shot involving Lester and Angela looking at each other (Malone Peter et.al, 91). Angela was essentially given a lower angle shot while looking up towards Lester in this scene. The low-angle shot typically places an observer at the realm of a helpless feeling in presence of a more superior force. In short, it gives greater emphasis on the aspects of anxiety, vulnerability, and fear. On the other hand, the aspect of Angela looking up towards Lester implies on the heights of Lesters control. However, Angela's position within the ultimate frame seems to ...